Fatal plane crash a mystery

Sunday

Feb 11, 2007 at 5:35 AM

Staff Reports

National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration officials on Saturday would not theorize what caused the late Friday crash of a civilian airplane at Fort Stewart that killed four people.

The small passenger plane went down in a remote training area on the sprawling U.S. Army post southwest of Savannah.

"The accident is under investigation, and we are not going to speculate on what may have happened," said NTSB air safety investigator Eric Alleyne as he stood in front of the wreckage of the plane's cockpit and engine, which came to rest amid some trees.

Two of the victims were identified Saturday by Liberty County Coroner Reginald L. Pierce as Trevor Quinn, 30, of Melbourne, Fla., and Richard P. Love, 32. Pierce said he was not sure of Love's hometown, but that it was in Florida.

FAA records show the plane was in the process of being purchased, possibly from Crystal Aviation in Brooksville, Fla., according to a report by Florida Today, a daily newspaper in Melbourne.

The FAA records also show Blue Heron Aviation Sales in Melbourne as owner of the plane. Dick Love was the listed owner of that company.

Pierce said the family of one of the victims did not want their loved one publicly identified yet. Pierce said he was still trying Saturday night to notify the fourth victim's family members.

The NTSB's Alleyne said the wreckage from the plane was scattered over a radius of about a mile just off of Ga. 144, which bisects Fort Stewart.

Alleyne said the plane fell off the radar screens as it was descending to an altitude of 12,900 feet sometime after 6 p.m. Friday. The pilot began his decent after requesting permission from flight controllers to go from 13,000 to 11,000 feet.

"There was no distress calls made," he said. "Once it was determined the plane had not landed safely, rescue crews were sent out to find it. A Military Police unit found the plane around 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Emergency responders searched more than five hours in the darkness - on the ground and in helicopters - before finding the wreckage in a swampy, heavily wooded area.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter initially located the wreckage by honing in on a GPS tracking device that was on the plane and that was not destroyed in the crash.

Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta, confirmed Saturday that the cause of the crash had not been determined.

She said air traffic controllers in Hilliard, Fla., alerted Fort Stewart when the plane fell off the radar screen Friday evening.

"Air traffic control lost (radio) contact with the flight at about 6:15 p.m.," Bergen said Saturday. "The wreckage wasn't found until almost midnight."

Bergen said the plane was following a flight plan approved by air traffic controllers and did not appear to be violating any military airspace restrictions.

Kevin Larson, chief public communications officer for Fort Stewart, said the four victims aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza 36 were flying to Anderson, S.C., from Titusville, Fla. The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday confirmed the origin of the plane's flight path, according to Florida Today, which is published near Titusville.

The crash site is nearly seven miles from where Fort Stewart's headquarters, barracks and motorpools are located. The nearest town, tiny Gum Branch in Liberty County, is about five miles south of the crash site. The main area of the Army post, home to the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, is near Hinesville.

Covering about 430 square miles, Fort Stewart has the largest land area of any Army post east of the Mississippi River. Most of that area is heavily wooded and used for training.